Reagan's
Evil Empire Speech
Delivered by President Ronald Reagan at the Annual Convention
of the the National Association of Evangelicals, March 8 1983
in Orlando, FL.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
And, Reverend
Clergy all, Senator Hawkins, distinguished members of the Florida
congressional delegation, and all of you: I can't tell you how
you have warmed my heart with your welcome. I'm delighted to be
here today.
Those of
you in the National Association of Evangelicals are known for
your spiritual and humanitarian work. And I would be especially
remiss if I didn't discharge right now one personal debt of gratitude.
Thank you for your prayers. Nancy and I have felt their presence
many times in many ways. And believe me, for us they've made all
the difference.
The other
day in the East Room of the White House at a meeting there, someone
asked me whether I was aware of all the people out there who were
praying for the President. And I had to say, "Yes, I am.
I've felt it. I believe in intercessionary prayer." But I
couldn't help but say to that questioner after he'd asked the
question that -- or at least say to them that if sometimes when
he was praying he got a busy signal, it was just me in there ahead
of him. I think I understand how Abraham Lincoln felt when he
said, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had nowhere else to go." From the joy and
the good feeling of this conference, I go to a political reception.
Now, I don't know why, but that bit of scheduling reminds me of
a story which I'll share with you.
An evangelical
minister and a politician arrived at Heaven's gate one day together.
And St. Peter, after doing all the necessary formalities, took
them in hand to show them where their quarters would be. And he
took them to a small, single room with a bed, a chair, and a table
and said this was for the clergyman. And the politician was a
little worried about what might be in store for him. And he couldn't
believe it then when St. Peter stopped in front of a beautiful
mansion with lovely grounds, many servants, and told him that
these would be his quarters.
And he couldn't
help but ask, he said, "But wait, how -- there's something
wrong -- how do I get this mansion while that good and holy man
only gets a single room?" And St. Peter said, "You have
to understand how things are up here. We've got thousands and
thousands of clergy. You're the first politician who ever made
it."
But I don't
want to contribute to a stereotype. So I tell you there are a
great many God-fearing, dedicated, noble men and women in public
life, present company included. And yes, we need your help to
keep us ever-mindful of the ideas and the principles that brought
us into the public arena in the first place. The basis of those
ideals and principles is a commitment to freedom and personal
liberty that, itself is grounded in the much deeper realization
that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly
sought and humbly accepted.
The American
experiment in democracy rests on this insight. Its discovery was
the great triumph of our Founding Fathers, voiced by William Penn
when he said: "If we will not be governed by God, we must
be governed by tyrants." Explaining the inalienable rights
of men, Jefferson said, "The God who gave us life, gave us
liberty at the same time." And it was George Washington who
said that "of all the dispositions and habits which lead
to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable
supports."
And finally,
that shrewdest of all observers of American democracy, Alexis
de Tocqueville, put it eloquently after he had gone on a search
for the secret of America's greatness and genius -- and he said:
"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard
her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness
and the genius of America. America is good. And if America ever
ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
Well, I'm
pleased to be here today with you who are keeping America great
by keeping her good. Only through your work and prayers and those
of millions of others can we hope to survive this perilous century
and keep alive this experiment in liberty, this last, best hope
of man.
I want you
to know that this administration is motivated by a political philosophy
that sees the greatness of America in you, her people, and in
your families, churches, neighborhoods, communities: the institutions
that foster and nourish values like concern for others and respect
for the rule of law under God.
Now, I don't
have to tell you that this puts us in opposition to, or at least
out of step with, a -- a prevailing attitude of many who have
turned to a modern-day secularism, discarding the tried and time-tested
values upon which our very civilization is based. No matter how
well intentioned, their value system is radically different from
that of most Americans. And while they proclaim that they're freeing
us from superstitions of the past, they've taken upon themselves
the job of superintending us by government rule and regulation.
Sometimes their voices are louder than ours, but they are not
yet a majority.
An example
of that vocal superiority is evident in a controversy now going
on in Washington. And since I'm involved I've been waiting to
hear from the parents of young America. How far are they willing
to go in giving to government their prerogatives as parents?
Let me state
the case as briefly and simply as I can. An organization of citizens,
sincerely motivated, deeply concerned about the increase in illegitimate
births and abortions involving girls well below the age of consent,
some time ago established a nationwide network of clinics to offer
help to these girls and, hopefully, alleviate this situation.
Now, again, let me say, I do not fault their intent. However,
in their well-intentioned effort, these clinics decided to provide
advice and birth control drugs and devices to underage girls without
the knowledge of their parents.
For some
years now, the federal government has helped with funds to subsidize
these clinics. In providing for this, the Congress decreed that
every effort would be made to maximize parental participation.
Nevertheless, the drugs and devices are prescribed without getting
parental consent or giving notification after they've done so.
Girls termed "sexually active" -- and that has replaced
the word "promiscuous" -- are given this help in order
to prevent illegitimate birth or abortion.
Well, we
have ordered clinics receiving federal funds to notify the parents
such help has been given. One of the nation's leading newspapers
has created the term "squeal rule" in editorializing
against us for doing this, and we're being criticized for violating
the privacy of young people. A judge has recently granted an injunction
against an enforcement of our rule. I've watched TV panel shows
discuss this issue, seen columnists pontificating on our error,
but no one seems to mention morality as playing a part in the
subject of sex.
Is all of
Judeo-Christian tradition wrong? Are we to believe that something
so sacred can be looked upon as a purely physical thing with no
potential for emotional and psychological harm? And isn't it the
parents' right to give counsel and advice to keep their children
from making mistakes that may affect their entire lives?
Many of us
in government would like to know what parents think about this
intrusion in their family by government. We're going to fight
in the courts. The right of parents and the rights of family take
precedence over those of Washington-based bureaucrats and social
engineers.
But the fight
against parental notification is really only one example of many
attempts to water down traditional values and even abrogate the
original terms of American democracy. Freedom prospers when religion
is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. When
our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to
protect churches from government interference. They never intended
to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept
of religious belief itself.
The evidence
of this permeates our history and our government. The Declaration
of Independence mentions the Supreme Being no less than four times.
"In God We Trust" is engraved on our coinage. The Supreme
Court opens its proceedings with a religious invocation. And the
members of Congress open their sessions with a prayer. I just
happen to believe the schoolchildren of the United States are
entitled to the same privileges as Supreme Court justices and
congressmen.
Last year,
I sent the Congress a constitutional amendment to restore prayer
to public schools. Already this session, there's growing bipartisan
support for the amendment, and I am calling on the Congress to
act speedily to pass it and to let our children pray.
Perhaps some
of you read recently about the Lubbock school case, where a judge
actually ruled that it was unconstitutional for a school district
to give equal treatment to religious and nonreligious student
groups, even when the group meetings were being held during the
students' own time. The First Amendment never intended to require
government to discriminate against religious speech.
Senators
Denton and Hatfield have proposed legislation in the Congress
on the whole question of prohibiting discrimination against religious
forms of student speech. Such legislation could go far to restore
freedom of religious speech for public school students. And I
hope the Congress considers these bills quickly. And with your
help, I think it's possible we could also get the constitutional
amendment through the Congress this year.
More than
a decade ago, a Supreme Court decision literally wiped off the
books of fifty states statutes protecting the rights of unborn
children. Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to one
and a half million unborn children a year. Human life legislation
ending this tragedy will someday pass the Congress, and you and
I must never rest until it does. Unless and until it can be proven
that the unborn child is not a living entity, then its right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be protected.
You may remember
that when abortion on demand began, many, and indeed, I'm sure
many of you, warned that the practice would lead to a decline
in respect for human life, that the philosophical premises used
to justify abortion on demand would ultimately be used to justify
other attacks on the sacredness of human life -- infanticide or
mercy killing. Tragically enough, those warnings proved all too
true. Only last year a court permitted the death by starvation
of a handicapped infant.
I have directed
the Health and Human Services Department to make clear to every
health care facility in the United States that the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 protects all handicapped persons against discrimination
based on handicaps, including infants. And we have taken the further
step of requiring that each and every recipient of federal funds
who provides health care services to infants must post and keep
posted in a conspicuous place a notice stating that "discriminatory
failure to feed and care for handicapped infants in this facility
is prohibited by federal law." It also lists a twenty-four-hour;
toll-free number so that nurses and others may report violations
in time to save the infant's life.
In addition,
recent legislation introduced by -- in the Congress by Representative
Henry Hyde of Illinois not only increases restrictions on publicly
financed abortions, it also addresses this whole problem of infanticide.
I urge the Congress to begin hearings and to adopt legislation
that will protect the right of life to all children, including
the disabled or handicapped.
Now, I'm
sure that you must get discouraged at times, but there you've
done better than you know, perhaps. There's a great spiritual
awakening in America, a renewal of the traditional values that
have been the bedrock of America's goodness and greatness.
One recent
survey by a Washington-based research council concluded that Americans
were far more religious than the people of other nations; 95 percent
of those surveyed expressed a belief in God and a huge majority
believed the Ten Commandments had real meaning in their lives.
And another study has found that an overwhelming majority of Americans
disapprove of adultery, teenage sex, pornography, abortion, and
hard drugs. And this same study showed a deep reverence for the
importance of family ties and religious belief.
I think the
items that we've discussed here today must be a key part of the
nation's political agenda. For the first time the Congress is
openly and seriously debating and dealing with the prayer and
abortion issues and that's enormous progress right there. I repeat:
America is in the midst of a spiritual awakening and a moral renewal.
And with your biblical keynote, I say today, "Yes, let justice
roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream."
Now, obviously,
much of this new political and social consensus I've talked about
is based on a positive view of American history, one that takes
pride in our country's accomplishments and record. But we must
never forget that no government schemes are going to perfect man.
We know that living in this world means dealing with what philosophers
would call the phenomenology of evil or, as theologians would
put it, the doctrine of sin.
There is
sin and evil in the world, and we're enjoined by Scripture and
the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might. Our nation, too,
has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. The glory of this
land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of
our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens
for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war is now
a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There
is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic
and racial hatred in this country.
I know that
you've been horrified, as have I, by the resurgence of some hate
groups preaching bigotry and prejudice. Use the mighty voice of
your pulpits and the powerful standing of your churches to denounce
and isolate these hate groups in our midst. The commandment given
us is clear and simple: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself."
But whatever
sad episodes exist in our past, any objective observer must hold
a positive view of American history, a history that has been the
story of hopes fulfilled and dreams made into reality. Especially
in this century, America has kept alight the torch of freedom,
but not just for ourselves but for millions of others around the
world.
And this
brings me to my final point today. During my first press conference
as president, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that,
as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and
publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that
which will further their cause, which is world revolution. I think
I should point out I was only quoting Lenin, their guiding spirit,
who said in 1920 that they repudiate all morality that proceeds
from supernatural ideas -- that's their name for religion -- or
ideas that are outside class conceptions. Morality is entirely
subordinate to the interests of class war. And everything is moral
that is necessary for the annihilation of the old, exploiting
social order and for uniting the proletariat.
Well, I think
the refusal of many influential people to accept this elementary
fact of Soviet doctrine illustrates a historical reluctance to
see totalitarian powers for what they are. We saw this phenomenon
in the 1930s. We see it too often today.
This doesn't
mean we should isolate ourselves and refuse to seek an understanding
with them. I intend to do everything I can to persuade them of
our peaceful intent, to remind them that it was the West that
refused to use its nuclear monopoly in the forties and fifties
for territorial gain and which now proposes 50 percent cut in
strategic ballistic missiles and the elimination of an entire
class of land-based, intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
At the same
time, however, they must be made to understand we will never compromise
our principles and standards. We will never give away our freedom.
We will never abandon our belief in God. And we will never stop
searching for a genuine peace. But we can assure none of these
things America stands for through the so-called nuclear freeze
solutions proposed by some.
The truth
is that a freeze now would be a very dangerous fraud, for that
is merely the illusion of peace. The reality is that we must find
peace through strength.
I would agree
to a freeze if only we could freeze the Soviets' global desires.
A freeze at current levels of weapons would remove any incentive
for the Soviets to negotiate seriously in Geneva and virtually
end our chances to achieve the major arms reductions which we
have proposed. Instead, they would achieve their objectives through
the freeze.
A freeze
would reward the Soviet Union for its enormous and unparalleled
military buildup. It would prevent the essential and long overdue
modernization of United States and allied defenses and would leave
our aging forces increasingly vulnerable. And an honest freeze
would require extensive prior negotiations on the systems and
numbers to be limited and on the measures to ensure effective
verification and compliance. And the kind of a freeze that has
been suggested would be virtually impossible to verify. Such a
major effort would divert us completely from our current negotiations
on achieving substantial reductions.
A number
of years ago, I heard a young father, a very prominent young man
in the entertainment world, addressing a tremendous gathering
in California. It was during the time of the cold war, and communism
and our own way of life were very much on people's minds. And
he was speaking to that subject. And suddenly, though, I heard
him saying, "I love my little girls more than anything."
And I said to myself, "Oh, no, don't. You can't -- don't
say that." But I had underestimated him. He went on: "I
would rather see my little girls die now; still believing in God,
than have them grow up under communism and one day die no longer
believing in God."
There were
thousands of young people in that audience. They came to their
feet with shouts of joy. They had instantly recognized the profound
truth in what he had said, with regard to the physical and the
soul and what was truly important.
Yes, let
us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian
darkness. Pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But
until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy
of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and
predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they
are the focus of evil in the modern world.
It was C.S.
Lewis who, in his unforgettable Screw Tape Letters, wrote: "The
greatest evil is not done now in those sordid 'dens of crime'
that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration
camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it
is conceived and ordered; moved, seconded, carried and minuted
in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet
men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks
who do not need to raise their voice."
Well, because
these quiet men do not raise their voices, because they sometimes
speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and peace, because, like
other dictators before them, they're always making "their
final territorial demand," some would have us accept them
at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses.
But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simpleminded
appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly.
It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.
So, I urge
you to speak out against those who would place the United States
in a position of military and moral inferiority. You know, I've
always believed that old Screw Tape reserved his best efforts
for those of you in the Church. So, in your discussions of the
nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation
of pride --the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above
it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts
of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply
call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove
yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and
evil.
I ask you
to resist the attempts of those who would have you withhold your
support for our efforts, this administration's efforts, to keep
America strong and free, while we negotiate real and verifiable
reductions in the world's nuclear arsenals and one day, with God's
help, their total elimination.
While America's
military strength is important, let me add here that I've always
maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never
be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The
real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a
test of moral will and faith.
Whittaker
Chambers, the man whose own religious conversion made him a witness
to one of the terrible traumas of our time, the Hiss-Chambers
case, wrote that the crisis of the Western world exists to the
degree in which the West is indifferent to God, the degree to
which it collaborates in communism's attempt to make man stand
alone without God. And then he said, for Marxism-Leninism is actually
the second-oldest faith, first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden
with the words of temptation, "Ye shall be as gods."
The Western
world can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only provided
that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as
communism's faith in Man."
I believe
we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another
sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last -- last pages
even now are being written. I believe this because the source
of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material,
but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify
and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow
man. For in the words of Isaiah: "He giveth power to the
faint; and to them that have no might He increased strength. But
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be
weary. "
Yes, change
your world. One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine, said, "We
have it within our power to begin the world over again."
We can do it, doing together what no one church could do by itself.
God bless
you and thank you very much.
